Tell Brand Ambassadors of Polymarket: No Gambling on Gang Rape!

To all Polymarket celebrity brand ambassadors, including LeBron James, Emily Ratajkowski, Eli Manning, and Alexandra Daddario:

As brand ambassadors profiting from your ties with the ‘predictive market’ (online gambling) platform Polymarket, you are also profiting from the heinous trend of betting on sexual assault cases. Right now, there is an entire page on Polymarket dedicated to ‘Sexual Misconduct Predictions & Odds’ with hundreds of different ‘markets’ you can bet on. One of those is titled ‘Any of the Cornell 7 charged with a felony sex crime?’ and already has over $444,000 traded on it. 

As women, sexual assault survivors, advocates, and allies, we are horrified that this type of betting is not only being allowed, but that each of you— especially those of you who have publicly spoken out against sexual violence — is implicitly endorsing it as ambassadors of Polymarket. Survivors deserve so much better than to have bets placed on whether or not they will win justice, not to mention the corrupt influence it could put on participating parties like jurors.

We are calling on you to do the right thing by cutting all ties with Polymarket and denouncing the gross practice of betting on legal cases regarding sexual violence.

In case you haven’t already heard about it, there is a company called “Polymarket” that effectively runs as an online gambling site — but a gambling site where you can bet on ANYTHING, from tomorrow’s weather to sports games to political races. Online gambling is illegal in much of the U.S. So how does Polymarket get around U.S. and state law? By setting themselves up as a “predictive market.” This means that trades on Polymarket are structured as “event contracts” or “swaps,” which technically differ from traditional betting or gambling.

Why does this matter? Because people are using Polymarket to bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on the outcome of sexual assault cases, including the recent case at Cornell in which Jane Doe accused seven fraternity members of drugging and brutally gang-raping her. That’s right: people are gambling on whether or not Jane Doe will ever see justice. And some of those people will get a big payout–including possibly anyone handling her case or potential jurors–from this young woman’s abuse. 

Not only is the existence of these bets morally reprehensible and a slap in the face to survivors everywhere, it also raises serious concerns about how these so-called “markets” could actually obscure justice. Sign the petition to demand celebrity ambassadors cut all ties with this harmful platform. Here is the full list of celebrity ambassadors:

• LeBron James
• Eli Manning
• Derek Jeter
• Spike Lee
• Alexandra Daddario
• Emily Ratajkowski
• Richard Sherman
• Sue Bird
• Bob Stoops
• Reggie Bush
• Rajon Rondo
• John Leguizamo
• Craig Robinson
• Stable Ronaldo
• Olivia Ponton
• Future 
• Peso Pluma
• Rick Rubin